Resources for Writers
On writing, craft and business, and on marketing your book.
I love to think of books in broad categories as Thomas Jefferson thought of them: on Reason (nonfiction), Memory (memoir) and Imagination (fiction). Book links go to bookshop.org or Amazon UK. Except for the link to Jane Friedman’s ‘Hot Sheet’ (Publishing), I have no financial interest in any of these resources. I just want to share them. Click on the pink links to jump to where you want to go.
KEY
📕 Book
🎥 Video
🔊 Podcast
📩 Newsletter
💻 Site/Article
Reason
📙 Stories that Stick, Kindra Hall
This is a gem. Storytelling as a corporate tool has become a cliché, which is a shame, because we are hard-wired to latch onto stories. This book by Kindra Hall should be required reading for every business owner aiming to write about their business. Sadly, it’s hard to find a copy. If you want to borrow mine, we can fix something up.
📙 On Writing Well, William Zinsser
He was the one who said, “Rewriting is where the game is won or lost; rewriting is the essence of writing.” A classic.
📙 The Byline Bible, Susan Shapiro
Professor Shapiro’s practical and funny book leads you through the crafting and selling of short nonfiction pieces.
📙 A Sense of Place, Michael Shapiro
Michael travelled to meet about twenty travel writers and this book collects their broad-ranging conversations. From Jan Morris and Jonathan Raban, through Bill Bryson, to Isabel Allende and Pico Iyer and many others.
📙 Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays, Windy Lynn Harris
I haven’t read this one myself but it’s been recommended by someone whose authority I trust. So many writers enjoy these two genres, knowing this book exists may be helpful to you.
📙 Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book Proposal, Jennie Nash
The best short introduction to writing a book proposal you will find.
If you’ve signed up to one-to-one book coaching with me, nudge me to send you a copy.
📙 How to Write a Book Proposal, Jody Rein with Michael Larsen
Larsen’s book walks you through the steps to write a good proposal. It’s careful, clear and authoritative. You could work with it to write your Proposal.
If you do, it has a couple of drawbacks. It won’t discuss your idea with you. If you ask it for feedback, it may–if you are reading with a glass of something strong to hand, late at night, under a full moon–give it to you.
It won’t hold you to your goals and you will find it supremely uninterested in helping you to describe the person who needs to read your book. Nor will it challenge you to get more specific about your Marketing Plan so that an Acquiring Editor is convinced you have what it takes to help get your book to market.
But – taken, along with Jennie Nash’s Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book (read that first) – it’s genuinely the next best thing to one-to-one coaching.
You know where to find me if you want to take your book to the next step.
Memory
📙 Blueprint for a Memoir: How to Write a Memoir for the Marketplace, Jennie Nash
Think about memoir in a whole new way. All you need to take advantage of the Blueprint is a story you want to share with the world and the willingness to take a few weeks to work through 14 tough questions.
If you’ve signed up to one-to-one book coaching with me, nudge me to send you a copy.
📙 The Memoir Project: : A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life, Marion Roach Smith
It’s short, entertaining and if you are going to write Memoir, you have to read this book.
Imagination
📙 Blueprint for a Book: Build Your Novel from the Inside Out, Jennie Nash
The best short introduction to writing a novel that you will find. I’m biased. Jennie was my teacher at Author Accelerator.
If you’ve signed up to one-to-one book coaching with me, nudge me to send you a copy.
📙 Take off your Pants! : Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing, Libbie Hawker
The shortest, most powerful guide to effective commercial fiction writing.
📙 Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book, Allison K Williams
“… she distils everything she’s learned from editing hundreds of drafts, coaching writers past creative blocks, and navigating authors through querying and publication, into this useful guide for every step from idea to book.”
📙 Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction, Larry Brooks
Sub-titled ‘Mastering the 6 core competencies of successful writing’. Good for reference.
📙 Revision and Self-Editing for Publication: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Novel that Sells, James Scott Bell
Highly practical and readable.
💻 KM Weiland
She has a mega-series of blog posts. Dip into to her wonderful podcasts.
On character archetypes, and on structuring scenes.
📙 The Artful Edit, Susan Bell
On the practice of editing your own work. “Brimming with examples, strategic tips and interviews with writers such as Ondaatje and Patchett, [this book] reminds us that editing is much more than a computer spell check.”
Sadly, it’s hard to find a copy. If you want to borrow mine, we can fix something up.
📙 The Writer’s Way, Sara Maitland
I love this book. (Not to be confused with Julia Cameron’s classic, The Artist’s Way.) In particular, Chapter Five, Now tell your story, is very good on how to Show. It has great techniques to build Characters (your book’s, not your own, haha), and how to write good Dialogue.
💻 One Stop for Writers
A paid subscription service for fiction writers with a library of practical reference materials. If you’ve ever been urged to show, don’t tell, you need to check this paid service out.
📙 Showing & Telling: Learn How to Show & When to Tell for Powerful & Balanced Writing
Says it all, really. A classic on the subject by Laurie Alberts.
📙 Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development
By the incomparable KM Weiland.
💻 What Makes Omniscient POV Different from Head-Hopping?
“Head-hopping authors sometimes say they’re writing in omniscient POV to cover their tracks. Um, no.”
📙Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence, Lisa Cron
“Imagine knowing what the brain craves from every tale it encounters, what fuels the success of any great story, and what keeps readers transfixed.”
📙Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere), Lisa Cron
If Wired for Story is the Why and the How story works, Story Genius is the about the practical application: it’s about how to develop a story that works.
Historical Fiction
💻 Enrich your novel with the five senses
Zara Altair is one of the best teachers of writing craft that I know. She writes traditional mysteries set in ancient Ostrogoth Italy (that’s around the 5th century).
Browse her blog for a goldmine of information on the craft of combining detective fiction with historical fiction.
📙Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders: A Writer’s (& Editor’s) Guide to Keeping Historical Fiction Free of Common Anachronisms, Errors, & Myths, Susanne Alleyn
A book on how not to write historical fiction. If you’re wondering if your novel’s medieval Irishmen would live on potatoes, if your 17th-century pirate would use a revolver, or if your hero would be able to offer Marie-Antoinette a box of chocolate bonbons . . .
📙Making it in Historical Fiction, Libbie Hawker
Hawker’s strategy for success begins long before you write your book. You’ll learn how to spot key opportunities in the modern publishing market, how to create an advance plan for your books that will maximize reader loyalty.
💻 Writing competitions, compiled by Chris Fielden
Follow the links on this rich page to submission information for contests, prizes, awards and publications open to unsolicited submissions from writers. Opportunities for anthologies, books, flash fiction, non-fiction, novels, poetry, short stories and more. “The competitions listed are from all over the world. Most of them are open to authors living anywhere on the planet.”
Challenges (and how to overcome them)
First up: maybe the biggest, but certainly the noisiest, external challenge of them all, right now:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Chat Generative Predictive Text (ChatGPT)
There’s a lot of debate – NSS – right now, every day, about the impact AI will have on the writing profession.
I’ve brought together here some of the most thoughtful discussions about the value of AI and Generative Predictive Text that I’ve seen so far.
🔉The AI-Assisted Artisan Author
How can we use AI tools in our creative and business processes while still keeping our humanity at the core of our books?
Joanna Penn: “There is much to be excited about if we can move past fear and doubt, and approach these tools with curiosity and a sense of wonder.” Her approach to using AI in her creative and business processes.
🔉 The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
A podcast for emerging writers, who are looking to improve their work with an aim to having it published, or for anyone who would like a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing industry. Bianca Marais, interviews book coaches, authors, agents, editors and everyone who’s involved in bringing a book to market.
📙 Trust Yourself – stop overthinking and channel your emotions for success at work, Melody Wilding
Written for people at work, not for writers, just the same, there is much to help you build the scaffolding to support your best life: how to show up as your full self, build boundaries and to trust your gut. I’ve given it to my daughters, my friends and myself.
📩 Dan Blank
Weekly newsletters – a model for writers wanting to develop an audience. Sign up at www.wegrowmedia.com.
📙Why Bother? Discover the desire for what’s next, Jen Louden
Jen – find her here and if she appeals more to you as a book coach than me, you go for it.
You will be so lucky to work with her 💗. All her 9 books are great, but this book raises the most important question you’ll ever ask yourself.
Jen challenges you to open your mind, your heart and your life by following where the question leads.
🎥 Seeking your elusive creative genius? Liz Gilbert
A classic Ted Talk. Want to find your creativity? Watch Liz Gilbert for a pick-me-up.
Business & Marketing
📙The Ultimate Guide to Book Marketing: Third Edition
Nick Erik is an expert on book marketing. He has ten years of experience writing more than 20 books, works with multiple six and seven-figure authors on their campaigns, and stays up-to-date with the latest changes to Amazon algorithms.
This book is a comprehensive guide to book marketing, suitable for new and experienced writers in any genre.
Here’s what you can expect to find inside:
👉🏻 Actionable Marketing Strategies: Discover how to create a marketing plan that showcases your book to the right audience.
👉🏻 Crafting Compelling Blurbs: Learn how to write a blurb that hooks readers and entices them to purchase your book.
👉🏻 Mastering Amazon Algorithms: Understand how Amazon’s algorithms work and how you can use them to boost your book’s visibility.
👉🏻 Freshly Updated for 2023: Stay ahead of the curve with the latest tips and tactics that work in today’s market.
May 2023 $5.99. Direct from Nick
💻 The Creative Penn
Joanna Penn’s website is a must have for the independent author: how to write, publish and market your book — and make a living with your writing.
She is “an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with 35+ books, with almost a million sold across 169 countries and 5 languages, a podcaster, international speaker, and award-winning creative entrepreneur”. And she loves hiking, to get peace of mind for days at a stretch. My sort of gal.
📙The Business of Being a Writer, Jane Friedman
Jane is the pre-eminent, data-driven, rational authority on the whole business of writing and publishing and this is the definitive book on the subject. USA oriented but useful globally.
🎥 Jane’s Live Sunday Business Sermons
Keep an eye out on Facebook, Sundays at 3pm EST, free.
📙Law and Authors, a legal handbook for Writers, Jacqueline D Lipton
Useful book for UK writers, though written from the US legal perspective.
Easy to read and indispensable for copyright, digital rights and libel, whether you publish independently or traditionally.
🔉Book Marketing: How To Get Publicity For Your Book
A podcast from Joanna Penn, of the Creative Penn. With Halima Khatun.
How can publicity form part of your book marketing strategy? How can you research the best media and craft a pitch or a press release that might get you and your book some attention?
📙📩 Building your newsletter list
Tammi Labrecque is an indie author, editor, and publisher and the master of the art of Newsletters for writers.
She has a book, and a free course, The Rock-Solid Foundation.
Her concise guide: Newsletter Ninja 2: If You Give a Reader a Cookie: Supercharge Your Author Mailing List With the Perfect Reader Magnet is perfect to explain how to offer your reader ‘cookies’, or reader magnets – something your reader will value, something related to the content of your book.
💻 How To Build an Author Platform
The best blog post around. By David Gaughran
📙Be the Gateway, a practical guide to sharing your creative work and engaging an audience, Dan Blank
Dan consults with writers and artists to launch their work.
He shows you how to make strong connections, one by one and makes engaging on social media meaningful.
📙Your Invisible Network
How to Create, Maintain, and Leverage the Relationships That Will Transform Your Career, Michael Urtuzuastegui Melcher
There is loads in here to interest writers, it “provides a practical, nuanced plan for building and sustaining a network that will supercharge your growth”.
📙Your First 1000 copies, Tim Grahl
Packed with plans and template wording, this book walks you through the process of building your author network.
Read it if you have a book to promote in the next year.
💻The Writing Wives
This dynamic duo offer help with author branding, advertising, book covers and VAs.
For when, as a multi-thousands earning author, managing your email list is not your top priority.
Production & publishing
📩 The Hot Sheet
This is an affiliate link to subscribe for (currently) $50 per year: if you use it, Jane will send me the value of half a cappuccino, for which I will be very grateful.
Understanding the publishing world is crucial to developing your career as a writer.
You can keep on top of industry developments with Jane Friedman’s The Hot Sheet. Fortnightly. Mostly, but not all USA oriented.
Traditional publishing
📙 Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook (annual)
The best, paper-based way to research agents and agencies, and publishers.
📩 How do you get paid for your books?
A note I have written to show you, by worked examples, how an author gets paid on the sale of each copy of their book, whether they publish traditionally,
with a hybrid publisher or independently.
📩 How to read a royalty statement.
This piece goes into a royalty statement in more detail. Agent Kate McKean and author Laura Portwood-Stacer discuss. Read at the Manuscript Works Newsletter.
💻 What recent publishing controversies say about the industry
Sometimes, literary agencies sack their authors – but not usually in large groups. The former agent Nathan Bransford has some interesting things to say about a recent debacle, in this May 2023 article.
Independent (self) publishing
💻 Kindle Direct Publishing
“Self-publish eBooks and paperbacks for free with Kindle Direct Publishing, and reach millions of readers on Amazon.”
It’s more complicated than it sounds, but completely achievable with time and determination, plus a good cover designer, print and e-book formatter, and some basic technological skills.
💻 Book Formatting – BB e Books
I use Paul Salvette’s great service at BB eBooks. His team formats ebooks and print editions for indie authors. They work with most fiction genres, and with non-fiction that requires more complex formatting.
There are Samples on the page on this link that show their formatting and production standards first-hand.
💻 Ingram Spark
“We offer global book distribution and free resources to help you self-publish successfully. Once you write and format your book, we make it possible to share it with the world.”
I personally don’t use Ingram Spark, preferring to do it all myself on Kindle Direct Publishing, but maybe with my next book, I’ll explore their offering.
In May 2023, Ingram Spark announced the abolition of setup fees but starting July 1, created a “market access fee”.
It’s a large and successful company but as with any major publishing decision, research carefully before making your decision.
💻 Facts and Figures about Self-Publishing: The Impact and Influence of Indie Authors
Data on independent – or ‘self’ – publishing.
📙Let’s get Digital, David Gaughran
From the master of independent publishing – I’m a fan, as you are about to find out – this book is indispensable for current knowledge about all things digital.
💻 David Gaughran – Starting from Zero
This is a resource that could equally sit in the Marketing or the Publishing section of this page.
David Gaughran is a lovely man, an Irish historical fiction writer living in Portugal and incredibly generous in sharing his deep knowledge with writers everywhere, especially writers who want to independently publish high quality books.
Starting from Zero is a free course that shows you how to launch your book that you are independently publishing.
There are a lot of tips that usefully translate to the trad pub world too.
It’s accompanied by a monster resource page, which, as David would say, ‘is a bit meta’, as I, too, am giving you a list of resources.
🎥 Self-Publishing Formula – Mark Dawson’s Podcast
A weekly discussion on topical issues in indie publishing between Mark Dawson and James Blatch.
💻 Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi)
“If you’re an indie author, our association is your self-publishing ally.”
Consider taking an annual subscription for the detailed info and fringe benefits.
💻 How to manage online payments
You could set up Stripe (like I use in my coaching business – BTW, this link is the GB local site – if you are in the US, Google ‘Stripe’ for your local version) or maybe Paypal, on your website, to take payment from customers who want to buy a copy of your book direct from you.
Or you could try Payhip, fairly commonly used in the indie author space.
Hybrid publishing
💻
US rules that govern hybrid publishers
IBPA’s Hybrid Publisher Criteria – non-enforceable guidelines: IBPA Standards 2018 : https://www.ibpa-online.org/page/hybridpublisher (copy and paste the link. One of technology’s quirks.)
Audio publishing
💻 Findaway Voices promotional blog
Findaway Voices (owned by Spotify) no longer charges authors a distribution fee for audiobooks purchased on Spotify; authors earn 50% of the list price they set.
Reputation
💻 Writer Beware®
Founded in 1998, and sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA®), this is an invaluable resource for anyone – anywhere in the world – scared of being ‘scammed’ in the independent publishing arena.
SFWA® is concerned not just with issues that affect professional authors, but with the problems and pitfalls that face aspiring writers.
It provides warnings about literary schemes and scams, along with information on how writers can protect themselves, so follow the blog at https://writerbeware.blog/
💻 Check that company
The Alliance of Independent Authors have a great tool that lets you check the reputation of self-publishing companies – hybrids, and assisted publishing services.
Access the tool for free here: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/best-self-publishing-services/
Feel free to email me (books@ruthbullivant.com) if you come across any broken bits, or resources you want to share.